and the new man, or the internal man, is called "the spirit," and between these two there is opposition and combat, so soon as man becomes willing to shed out the life of the external man, which by nature is the ruling life or love, in order to receive as his ruling principle the life of the internal. Let the reader turn to the viiith chapter of Romans, and, with the aid afforded by our commentary on the above ancient saying, what a light and beauty will he find shine forth from the apostle's doctrine!*

Beginning with the last verses of the former chapter, the Apostle teaches, that God through Christ, or the Divine Nature through the Human, gives deliverance from the evils inherent by nature in the external man, (called "a body of death,") and this deliverance being offered interiorly to every one, (as the blessed consequence of human redemption), there is no longer a liability to condemnation for those who avail themselves of the offer, thus continually presented to them in their internal man, by walking not after the loves of the external man, but after those of the internal, in consequence of which they are in the Lord and the Lord in them, being conjoined with his Divine Humanity. He shews that this deliverance from evil is consequent on the Lord's operations for the removal of infirmity from his own Humanity, and that he glorified his Humanity in order that the righteousness enjoined in the Word might be fulfilled through his assistance, in those who walk not after the motions of the external man, but after those of the internal. He then proceeds to say that those whose character is formed from the external man, are chiefly concerned about outward things, but those whose character is formed from the internal man, are chiefly concerned about spiritual and heavenly things; and then he declares, that to be carnally minded is to be alive to sin, and therefore dead to

* In the common translation of the Bible, the word "spirit" is often printed with a capital letter, as if it meant the spirit of God, where it obviously means the spirit of man, or his internal part which is spiritual. A discrimination between these two senses of the word spirit, throws a new light upon the Lord's declaration to Nicodemus, that a man must be "born of water and the spirit," not meaning any reference in this place either to the water used in baptism, or to the Spirit of God,the "living water" of divine truth, being the water referred to, while by "spirit" is meant a life according to truth, originating in the spiritual affection of goodness and truth in the internal man which is spiritual. And when the Lord adds, "that which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit," he means us to understand, that every thought and act which is born of or originates from the life of the external man is carnal, and at enmity with God; but when this life has been laid down, or shed out by repentance, every thought, and act, because it then originates from the life of the internal man, is spiritual, and is the means of cementing man's conjunction with God.

God, but to be spiritually minded is to be in the enjoyment of spiritual life and peace. For the chief regard to external things is the cherishing of that life of the natural man which is at enmity with all goodness and therefore with God; and because this life, being corrupt, cannot be so reduced to subjection to the divine law as to become heavenly in its quality, therefore it must be shed out, for all who will not part with it, but wilfully remain in, and cherish it, cannot please God, who can take delight only in what is spiritual. Those only are principled in spiritual life who, by righteousness, prepare an abode for the Spirit of God in their hearts, and this he calls "the Spirit of Christ" because it proceeds from the Lord's Divine Humanity. If this Spirit abides in us, the external man is dead, its life having been shed out, it is dead because the life of sin is no longer nourished, and the internal man alone lives as the actuating principle, because righteousness, which alone is loved and cherished, proceeds only from the internal man, or from the Lord into, and through the internal man.—In this epistle, the external man is called "the flesh," "the body," and “the mortal body," and the supposition that by "quickening our mortal bodies," is meant the resurrection of man's dead body, is the reducing sublimely figurative language to a literal sense never intended, which, indeed, in any interpreter, indicates the extreme of prejudice or dulness. The very attempt we have made to put the Apostle's language into other language conveying the ideas meant without the medium of figure, has only served to shew how admirably this chapter and the chapters connected with it, are calculated to convey instruction through a train of striking and apt figures of speech, when the key to their meaning has been obtained.

No doubt the saying, "Without shedding blood there is no remission," was coeval with that alluded to by our author in A.C. 2816, as follows: "It was known from the most ancient time, that the Lord was to come into the world, and that he was to suffer death. Hence arose the custom among the Gentiles of sacrificing their children, believing that thus they would expiate their sins, and render God propitious. This abominable custon they would never have practised as one of most religious obligation, unless they had received from the ancients a tradition, that the Son of God should come, and was to be made, as they believed, a literal sacrifice. That the sons of Jacob also inclined to this abomination appears from the prophets, and it was to prevent their falling into it, that it was permitted to institute burnt offerings and sacrifices."

In the same passage E.S. explains that the preparations made by

Abraham to slay Isaac signified the Lord's last temptation on the cross. "By these words, (says E.S.) that Abraham took a knife to slay his son, is signified, even to the death of whatever was merely human in the Lord's Humanity." Our author also remarks that in the offering of Isaac, in order that this representation might exist, the attempt to slay a son, in order to signify it, was carried as far as order allowed, and thus was represented that fact which an apostle has described when it had been accomplished, by saying of the Lord, "He died unto sin once." As "without shedding of blood there is no remission," therefore the Lord actually shed his blood (while his followers are required to do so only spiritually) to signify that he then entirely shed out the natural, maternal, merely human life of the infirm Humanity taken from Mary; his actual blood-shedding or death being also a necessary means of shedding out that life, in order to his receiving instead of it, "Life in Himself”—the "fulness of the Godhead." Thus it was that He was "made perfect through suffering."

Reference has lately been made in our magazine to a Scotch writer of great reputation, (Thomas Erskine, Esquire, Advocate,) who has endeavoured to enlighten the gloomy shades of Scotch Calvinism. Mr. Erskine shews that all the triumph awarded by Calvinists to President Edwards, the celebrated writer "on the will," over the Arminians, arose from his having assumed that the fact of man's whole natural mind being evil from birth, was the only fact of which he was to take cognizance, in discussing the subject of free will, whereas he should have known that another material fact demands equal attention, namely, that in every man, there is a divine principle present, which effectually countervails the effect of the fall, whenever man, by repentance and faith, allows it to develop itself within him. This divine principle is called in the New Testament "the spirit," and is thus referred to by Moses in Deut. xxx., "This commandment which I command thee this day is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off, but the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it. See, I have set before thee this day life and good, death and evil." Mr. Erskine justly contends that conscience (which we practically class with the internal man) is that principle which, in consequence of human redemption, has full power to perceive and embrace truth, (although liable to be deceived by mistaking error for truth,) and that man is kept in freedom to choose between what conscience dictates-life and good on the one hand, and what corrupt nature inclines to-death and evil on the other. The doctrine thus delivered is identical with the New Church doctrine, that man is kept by the Lord, in order to his exercise of rational freedom, in equilibrium between the opposite influences of the unfallen internal

man, and the fallen external man, and thus between the opposing influences of heaven and hell. Mr. Erskine contends, that if the former be cherished, and the latter resisted, man is then called, in Scripture, God's Elect, because he has elected the nature which God elected in him to bear rule, and thus has rendered his election sure; but if man cherishes the flesh, the natural part of him,―he then is numbered with the Reprobate, because he makes that quality to bear rule in him, which Divine Holiness reprobates. Mr. Erskine adverts to the Lord's remonstrance to the Pharisees, "And why even of yourselves judge ye not what is right ?" as proving that every one has, in his conscience or internal man,-or in the Word, deposited in its proper receptacle within Him, a capacity of judging rightly, or in opposition to error, if he will use it. Mr. Erskine insists that in order that a man may rise from the ruins of the fall, the life-blood of the flesh,or the life of the Old Adam ·must be first shed out, preparatory to his receiving the new life of the new man, and he shews that this has been rendered both our privilege and duty, by our Lord having first done it himself on the cross, and that this is the indispensable Christian sacrifice, without which there is no salvation-" no remission." He clearly states that the Lord, by shedding out the life of the Old Adam in his Humanity, effected a union between God and man, and this is what he understands by the atonement. In short, Mr. Erskine's work on Election, exhibits the nearest possible approach to the doctrines of the New Church, while there appears here and there something deficient in definiteness, which the writings of Swedenborg could fully supply. An acquaintance with them is all that Mr. Erskine requires to make his religious views perfect. The work alluded to was published about seven years since.

W. M.

ON THE CORRESPONDENCE OF RAIN, SNOW, DEW,

AND HAIL.
(Concluded from page 167.)

THE Sources of rain, dew, snow, and hail are in the clouds: so it is spiritually. The literal truths of the Sacred Scriptures form clouds, whence all divine truth, all heavenly doctrine descends; which truths are rain, snow, dew, or hail, according to their reception. As clouds intervene between us and the brightness of the heavens, obscuring and modifying the rays of the natural sun; so the literal sense of the Divine Page covers over, obscures, modifies, and accommodates the glories of heavenly wisdom to the understanding of man.

The greater part of the phenomena of the visible heavens is owing to the clouds. To these aqueous vapours we are indebted for the pleasure we feel in beholding the vivid colours which often gild the sky,-the endless variety of new and changing forms which are constantly passing over our heads; by their means the sun reddens the east with his rising radiance, and lights up the fires of the west with his streaming splendours. Sometimes the clouds, driven by the fury of the wind, rush together in fearful masses, and envelop us in deepest gloom, even at midday.

How true is all this of the clouds of the literal sense of the Holy Word. To these clouds we are indebted for all the beautiful imagery of the Scriptures, as Psa. lxxx. 8—14; for all its entertaining history, as the manners, customs, defeats, and conquests of the Jewish people; for all its delightful and affecting narratives, as that of Joseph and his brethren, of David and Jonathan, of the family of Lazarus, Martha and Mary, &c. these are clouds, new, varied, and beautiful. In addition to the above, there are dark clouds-dark parables, mysterious prophecies; then, again, there are those passages of the Bible which contain in the letter mere apparent truths, such as "God tempted Abram," "God is angry with the wicked every day," &c. &c.: these are dark clouds, as dark as the imagination can conceive, in which the thickest shades are engendered, where tempests break, and horrors thicken in the air; clouds of impenetrable darkness to the men of former churches!

As all aqueous vapours descend from the clouds, so all divine truth— all God's speech-all God's doctrine, descends from the Word in its literal sense; it is the source of all genuine truth—of all divine teaching -of all heavenly influence. This may be illustrated and confirmed by the Scriptures. We select one passage: (Matt. xvii. 2.) “His face did shine as the sun, and His raiment was as the light; and there appeared Moses and Elias talking with Him, and a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice came out of the cloud, saying, This is my beloved Son, hear ye Him." The whole of this extraordinary relation represents the Holy Word-its divine good and truth, and teaches us that all heavenly doctrine is from the clouds of its literal sense. "His face did shine as the sun,”—the Word was refulgent with divine good and love; "His raiment was as the light,”—the splendour of the Word from the divine truth and wisdom; "there appeared Moses and Elias talking with Him," the historical and prophetical parts of the Word bearing testimony of the Lord; "and a bright cloud overshadowed them,"-the literal sense of the Scriptures made bright, or translucent from the glory within, and covering over all faith, and love, and charity; "and a voice came out of the cloud, saying, This is my beloved Son, hear ye Him,”